Freebie Friday: Stay Free in London During the Olympics

Though this topic will only be helpful to a small handful of readers, I'm reporting on it anyway because it's such a good lesson in ignoring the conventional wisdom.

For months, the world's press has been screaming about the high costs of lodgings during the Olympics.  In order to get a room in London during the Olympics, they've said, you're going to have to fork over the equivalent of child's college fund.

Turns out that expectation was overblown. Not only have a number of London hotels recently dropped their July and August rates (seems they were unable to fill all their beds at the prices they were charging), but The Guardian newspaper is reporting that the Games are driving so many Londoners out of town, there will be an unusually large number of house-sitting opportunities this summer. That's right: visitors will be able to stay in lovely, private apartments without paying a pence.

Interested? Click here to read the entire article, including the how to's.

All this drives home what I wrote month's ago: wait until the last minute and you will find lodging bargains, really good ones, for the Olympics. It happened in Beijing, Los Angeles, Sydney and at every other Olympic games in recent memory.